


Slow

by nats_zoo



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Developing Relationship, F/M, Shiratorizawa, Slow Burn, Soulmates, To Be Edited, Ushijima Wakatoshi is Bad at Feelings, WELL ANYWAYS, Weird pacing, but he tries his best, i write EVERYTHING while sleep deprived????, i wrote this while sleep deprived, im so sorry this is so confusing, no beta we die like men, this story focuses on like TWENTY DIFFERENT THINGS CONSECUTIVELY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25691824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nats_zoo/pseuds/nats_zoo
Summary: Ushijima Wakatoshi was not great with feelings. Even with his soulmate. Everything came out as stiff and awkward and blunt, or didn’t come out at all.You supposed you had to learn to live with it. He was your soulmate, after all.
Relationships: Ushijima Wakatoshi/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 182





	Slow

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!! i’m back!!! with a soulmate au!! a bit unexpected, coming from me. i’m not the greatest fan of soulmate aus but they’re fun to write occasionally!! 
> 
> this one’s one of the longest oneshots i’ve written, i think. a lot of it is a bit messy. it goes in a lot of different directions and kind of ends abruptly with no CLEAR conclusion, which i do a lot sometimes. 
> 
> regardless, i hope you all enjoy it!!! and if you don’t, please tell me why! and any ways you think i could improve!! 
> 
> thank you for all the support so far!! it’s really rewarding to see people who enjoy the content that i put out. 
> 
> by the way—i’m currently editing & posting this on my phone so some things might be messed up. i’m very sorry about that!!! i’ll best sure to fix any errors in the formatting when i get a chance.
> 
> happy reading!!

It was common knowledge among those in the Shiratorizawa Volleyball Club that their captain, Ushijima Wakatoshi, prioritized volleyball over nearly everything else. 

Even relationships. Even _soulmates._

His friend Tendou had laughed mirthlessly when Ushijima first met you, his soulmate. He was there to witness the whole thing, your eyes flitting between the ace’s soulmark trailed beautifully against his wrist and the same mark mirrored on your forearm. You looked enthused to meet him--not overly, hopping-off-the-walls ecstatic, but certainly hopeful enough to elicit a wide smile from you. 

“I’m [Last] [First],” you introduced yourself politely, with light hesitance and an extended hand. 

Ushijima blinked, looked down at your hand (soft, a red and scabbed cut on your first knuckle, a birthmark on the bony part of your wrist) and then back up at your eyes. He returned the gesture, shaking your hand, giving a polite bow--

\--and walking right away. 

You blinked in shock. Tendou’s mouth parted in disbelief. His head swung back and he called after Ushijima to no avail. Turning back to you, he gave a short apology and ran after his friend to scold (and tease) him. 

Your mind went a bit hazy and in a natural defense mechanism, you tried to convince yourself that you were just dreaming. 

You went home. Fell into your bed. Realized you were _not_ dreaming. Cried into your pillow and fell asleep, begrudgingly waking up the next morning and getting ready for school. 

\---

During lunch, you stayed in your classroom to eat lunch alone when someone at the door told you a boy was looking for you. (You felt a bit pathetic for hoping that it was your soulmate and being disappointed when you realized it was _not_ him.) 

You recognized the boy as the redhead that accompanied your soulmate yesterday. Flinching at the memory, you asked him why he was here. 

“I just wanted to say sorry, for the way my friend acted yesterday.” His expression was lighthearted and playful, if anything, but you recognized the sincerity of his words. “He tends to be a little… aloof, sometimes. But I promise you it’s not that he hates you or anything, just isn’t used to this. But he’s willing to talk to you again.” 

You tried not to get your hopes up too much, and instead look at the reasonable outcomes of this whole _soulmate_ thing. It’s not like you were really expecting love at first sight--lots of soulmates didn’t end up in a romantic relationship. Hell, your parents weren’t even soulmates but they were still very in love with each other. But at the very least, you thought your soulmate wouldn’t just _walk away_ after meeting you. 

You took the redhead’s offer, packed up your half-eaten bento, and followed him to his own classroom a few doors down. 

Your soulmate was there--you still didn’t know his name--and his head perked up at the sound of the sliding door opening. His expression was stagnant, which dampered your spirits the slightest bit and made you consider spinning on your heel and locking yourself in the bathroom for the rest of the school day. 

You sat with the two of them, knees clenched together and gaze focused solely on the bento box resting on your lap. None of you spoke. Tendou’s eyes flitted between the both of you in expectance. 

“So,” he spoke up, thankfully breaking the bout of stifling silence. “[Name], you wanna tell us a little about yourself? We don't really know much about you outside of… the very little we learned yesterday, so…?” 

Your mouth gaped and closed rapidly, trying to find a good way to describe yourself without either seeming like an interviewee or a self-absorbed rando. 

“I’m… [Name]. I’m seventeen… in class one. I’m in the photography club.” There wasn’t much else to say, you thought. You were a very normal person. Maybe _too_ normal to really be worthy of having a close bond with your soulmate, but a small part of you still sort of hoped. 

“Wakatoshi, your turn.” 

The taller boy blinked into his bento (hayashi rice, you noted. Something you were able to cook, if you tried hard enough) before speaking. His voice was deep and embarrassingly, you flushed at the way it rumbled within his throat. 

“I’m the captain of the volleyball team.” 

Okay. So. No age. No name (except for _‘Wakatoshi,’_ which you only pulled from what Tendou said). Just his club. 

With a lump in your throat and a prickly feeling behind your eyes, you excused yourself politely, bowing, and clutching tightly to your star-wrapped bento before leaving the classroom. 

You went home. Punched your pillow before realizing you were definitely not one for using aggression as a coping mechanism and instead crying while making a cup of tea. Went to bed and woke up the next morning trying to forget all of the events of the past two days. 

\---

A week passed. Somewhere within that time, Tendou had exchanged numbers with you as a polite formality, a deeper meaning ingrained in his offer (one that you read as, “hey, I know it must be really disappointing to realize that your soulmate has absolutely no clue what romance is and no ambition for anything but hitting a volleyball, but if you ever wanna talk about it then hit me up!” You couldn’t deny that you still appreciated it).

You took the week to avoid interacting with _Wa-ka-to-shi,_ never texting Tendou and asking to eat lunch with them or even showing up at his practice like some of their fans did (you were a bit surprised to learn that the _volleyball team_ had _fans)_. But you had a breaking point, as you often did whenever it came to your faux-shunning. 

You texted Tendou, hoping that you weren’t _that_ unlucky that he was still at volleyball practice and had his phone out for the captain to view.

**does he like hayashi rice?**

_“Read”_ appeared under your text. You waited for the three dots to appear, which took an unnervingly long time to happen. 

_yup! how’d u know??_

**he was eating it when i had lunch with you guys.**

_ur observant!!_

**i guess. do you guys have morning practice tomorrow?**

_yup! starts at 7. fourth gym :) see you there!!_

You paused. Tendou was nice. Also very observant. Scarily observant, enough to catch onto what you were trying to do. It made you a bit wary, but to be fair, you weren’t really being discreet in the first place. 

Your mother asked you multiple times why you were cooking beef stew at nine PM, far past dinnertime. You were scared to admit that it was for a soulmate, so you instead settled for “friend” and she (very suspiciously) let you be in the kitchen. 

You packed the food into four bento boxes. One for your mom, your dad, _Wa-ka-to-shi,_ and you. (You couldn’t help the annunciation of each syllable of his name. It was just so fun to say, so fun to click against the back of your tongue repeatedly. You blamed the affinity for his name on your soulmate bond.) 

You went to bed. Woke up extra early. Disregarded the concerned look your parents gave you when you left the house half an hour early with two bentos in hand. 

Just as Tendou said, there was the squeaking of the volleyball team from within Gym Number Four. You hovered outside, a text sent to Tendou asking if you were allowed to come in as you awkwardly shifted the weight on your feet. 

_yup!! we’re taking a break right now. just come right in, i’ll be waiting for u at the door_

He _was_ waiting for you at the door, but so was Wakatoshi (you figured you should drop the somewhat-annoying pronunciation of each letter), which threw you into a stammering loop as you blinked between the both of them. 

“Good morning.” Wakatoshi greeted you politely, nodding his head at you. You repeated the gesture before extending a bento box to him, with your favorite star cloth wrapping it in the neatest way you could manage. 

“It’s for you. For lunch. Or dinner. Or whenever. It’s hay-- um, hayashi rice.” 

Wakatoshi didn’t take it. You cringed at the lack of action and a familiar lump manifested in your throat. The stoic boy blinked down at the childish wrap and you found yourself wishing you took a solid colored furoshiki instead of this one. 

In a moment of boldness, you shoved the box into his chest where he instinctively reached for it and held it. 

“I hope you like it!” You said it louder than intended and flinched at the sudden gazes on you from the other members of the team further into the gym. “Have a good day.” 

A polite bow, and you were on your way, cursing yourself for taking the effort to make a decent-quality meal for a soulmate, a _boy_ who barely even glanced at you without his friend giving him the hint to do so.

During lunch, you didn’t feel hungry, and the bento sat untouched on your desk for the whole break. You ended up letting your parents have the leftovers when you got home. Your appetite was gone for the rest of the day. 

(Tendou ended up bringing you back your box and cloth the next day, wordlessly apologizing for having to be the messenger of your belongings rather than the person you actually gifted it to in the first place. You took it back with a resigned sigh and a thankful smile.) 

\---

The morning you stopped by, Tendou rolled his eyes after your departure and he gave his friend a firm, but friendly pat on the back. 

“Why are you so awkward, Wakatoshi? That’s your soulmate, you know. You could at least be a little courteous towards her?” 

Said man stayed silent, still leering at the patterned furoshiki covering the lunch you made for him-- _specifically_ him; the concept sent an unfamiliar fluttering through his chest that he didn’t dare to look into. 

“Why would she make this for me?” 

Tendou rolled his eyes again, letting out an audible groan. 

“I just explained it to you, ‘Toshi! She likes you. You’re her soulmate. You could at least tell her _thank you_.” 

“I will, next time.” 

Tendou’s eyes narrowed at that. You seemed like a spontaneous person, from the few interactions you’d had with each other. (That, and the fact that after a week of ghosting your own soulmate you suddenly decided to make an entirely specialized lunch for him.) He wanted to half-joke and say _‘I don’t really know when the_ next time _will be, exactly,’_ but figured that may lead into another _Q & A With Ushijima Wakatoshi, _ and instead let the captain simmer in his own contemplation for now. 

\---

You didn’t know Semi Eita very well. He was in your class, and you chatted a fairly reasonable amount with him, even going as far as to sit and eat with him in the classroom whenever he claimed he was _“too tired to deal with his friends in the cafeteria.”_ As much of a “friend” of his you could be considered, you didn’t know much of him past what he was on the surface. 

Nevertheless, you still knew him better than your soulmate. And that petty realization may have contributed to why you accepted his offer for a cafe date. 

Semi approached you during lunch one day, not embarrassed in the slightest when he asked you if you wanted to go to a new cafe with him on Friday. “It can be a date, if you want,” he’d told you, eyes flitting to the side momentarily before meeting yours again. “But it doesn't have to be. We can just hang out.” 

A bit flustered, you still accepted his offer, figuring a day out wouldn’t do much harm. He smiled at your response, asking you to meet him at his gym after his volleyball practice ended. 

You didn’t think much of it. He certainly didn’t pressure you into assuming it was a date, and if you didn’t like it then you could just turn him down for a _second date_ and move on with your single life. 

On Friday afternoon, at five PM like he specified over text, you walked into the doorway of the gym, hovering and watching some of the boys clean up any spare equipment left in the gym. You couldn’t spot Semi anywhere, and moved to back away from the door when a familiar voice stopped you. 

“[Name].” The sound of your first name coming from the rumble of your voice unwillingly sent shivers through your spine and you chastised yourself for the reaction. 

You looked at him, and there he was--sweaty, all dark-hair and olive-eyes and you hated how flustered you got. 

You gave him a polite nod and forced your lips into a smile. Despite you not responding verbally, he (uncharacteristically) led the conversation. 

“It’s nice to see you here.” The words felt forced, almost rehearsed on his lips, and you couldn’t help the cock of your head in curiosity at that. “The food you made me last time was very good.” A pause, and his eyes turned to the polish wood floor. “Are you here to bring another gift?” 

Wakatoshi was straightforward with his question, and at the unfamiliar aloofness you found your ears turning warm and fingers grasping at each other in habit. 

“No, um-- I’m actually here to see… someone.” 

“...someone?” 

“Yeah. Someone.” You didn’t feel like elaborating, and by some sheer luck that you mentally praised the gods for, Semi jogged to your side, changed into his school uniform and a kind smile crossing his face. 

“Hey.” He greeted you, turning up to his captain in confusion before focusing on you again. “Ready to go?” 

Your eyes were forced off of Wakatoshi’s, and you returned Semi’s expression with a nod. You refused to look the captain in his eyes again, and instead focused on making sure you didn’t trip on the sidewalk while walking with Semi. 

\---

The date-- hang out-- outing-- _whatever you wanted to call it_ went nicely. You both had pleasant, lighthearted, not-forced conversation over _very_ good coffee and you found it enjoyable. 

By the end of the night, while Semi walked you back home, you figured you had to address what you were a bit nervous to address in the first place. After explaining your hesitancy towards calling your hang-outs _“dates,”_ Semi ultimately brushed it off, a smile on his face as he told you he really didn’t care too much and would enjoy just being a friend to you. 

You were relieved. A quiet voice deep inside your head told you to not let this poor boy get hopeful when you were still trying to settle things with (read: get over) your soulmate. Regardless of secondhand reasoning, you were thankful he was understanding and _also_ thankful he was willing to be a friend. 

\---

You found yourself eating lunch with Semi a bit more often than before. It was nice to have someone else’s presence near you while you ate rather than having to sit alone and people-watch through the window of the classroom. 

You were startled when Wakatoshi appeared in the doorway of your classroom while in the midst of a conversation with Semi. Noticing your mildly dumbfounded expression, Semi turned around to see where you were looking and looked confusedly at the form of his fellow teammate. 

Wakatoshi nodded at him, turned to you, and gave a wave and a very, _very_ subtle upturn of his lips. (Despite the subtlety of the gesture, you had to suppress a gasp that threatened to break past the back of your throat.)

He didn’t make a move to approach you, so you took the opportunity to walk up to him and meet him at the door, unintentionally avoiding the questions Semi shot at you in confusion. 

“Hi,” you greeted stiffly. “Do you need something?” 

“No. Yes.” Wakatoshi paused, collecting his thoughts. “I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with me.” 

It was an unexpected offer, one you deemed uncharacteristic coming from the aloof boy. You let your mind overprocess it before cutting off your overthinking and giving him a proper response. 

“I’m eating lunch with Semi today. But maybe tomorrow, if you still want to.” 

A foreign look of confusion appeared on his face, his brows furrowed together and head tilting slightly to the side. “Are you dating Semi?” 

Wow. Okay. Very straightforward. Very sudden. You certainly were _not_ dating Semi, and you didn’t know how he managed to draw that conclusion after seeing you and Semi interact a total of two times in his presence. 

“I’m not…? Why are you so worried about that?” 

“Because we’re soulmates.” 

Your stomach churned in a mix of emotions. You didn’t know how to describe your feelings--it was an ugly mesh of annoyed, angry, confused, and _on-the-verge-of-tears_ . You found it a bit funny that only _now_ he was acknowledging your soulmate bond. It made the prickling sensation behind your eyes only increase in intensity. 

“Right. Um, you… you didn’t really do much about that before.” You tried not to call out word-for-word what he did, but figured a jab at it wouldn’t send you into guiltily reflecting on your past actions while in the shower at midnight. 

He was silent, avoiding your gaze and finding interest in the cracked wood of the door. Before your subconscious forced you to apologize, you gave a polite farewell and slid the door halfway shut before returning to your seat. 

Semi stared at you incredulously. “Are you…?” 

“I don’t know, man.” Despite the sudden lack of appetite (yet again! You really were not good at any form of confrontation), you forced yourself to nibble on your food and pushed down the uncomfortable feeling in your stomach. 

\---

Wakatoshi made a point to run into at any time he saw fit, which was very often. He’d find ways to catch you in the morning and say hi, and always invited you to eat lunch with him in his classroom. Out of courtesy, you often accepted his offer, feeling a bit surprised (and wary) when Tendou didn’t appear to accompany the both of you. Those lunch periods were spent in jarring silence, Wakatoshi slowly eating his food (cutely, you noted before burning that thought into the fiery recesses of hell in your mind) and you eating yours while sweating and hoping that you didn’t look weird when you chewed. 

This routine kept going on for a solid week. You didn’t know what to expect anymore. Other than the lunch invitations and morning small talk, he didn’t make any outstanding gestures towards you to try to get closer. You didn’t know if that was good or bad. 

One day, during lunch when you’d hesitantly accepted yet another offer to eat with him (ignoring Semi’s teasing look when you left the classroom), he made another strange offer, diverting from the usual discussions of weather, clubs, and schoolwork. 

“I have a game soon.” He started off. “I’d like you to come watch.” 

You paused, staring into your rice in an empty hope that it’d give you a clue on how to respond. 

“It’s on Saturday. At twelve. The gymnasium isn’t too far from here. I’d like to take you to dinner afterwards.” 

Oh. _Oh._ That was unexpected. And you were _expecting_ the unexpected. Then again, maybe you should’ve figured that eventually he may have made some sort of move after waiting a week with bated breath. 

Your lips parted, but no noise escaped. You wanted to accept, definitely, but you _also_ wanted to be a little aware of his intentions. 

“Um…” You floundered a little bit, “I’ll see if I can make it. But… um, dinner?” 

“Yes.” Though his voice was steady and deep as always, you sensed hesitance in the way his eyes shifted away from yours and into his lunch. “A date.” 

It was a relief to hear him just _say_ it rather than beating around the bush. You cleared your throat in habit and scratched the skin of your thumb. 

“Oh. Okay. That would… be nice.” 

He smiled. It wasn’t the occasional tilt of his lips, it was a smile. Stretched lips, crinkled eyes and all. You lost your breath at the sight and a soundless laugh escaped your lips. 

“Yes. I think so too.” 

It was a slow start. It would take some getting used to. But you were both willing to guide each other, slow and steady.


End file.
